Star Trek - Lost Souls [Cortex +]

Star Trek – Lost Souls

The Sheridan Colony on P3-3936 needs to be evacuated. A rogue star is going to collide with the systems star in a little over 14 months. The Federation has identified three planets that aren’t too far away that might be suitable candidates for the colony. Teams have been sent to each planet to conduct a quick survey (3 months) then those findings will be reviewed by the colony and Star Fleet Colonial Command to determine which planet is the best match. The remaining time before the catastrophe will be used to transport the colonists to the new world. The USS Hercules has been assigned as the primary on the mission. She dropped all of the survey teams off on their planets and runabouts from her conduct regular resupply missions for the teams. The survey teams consist of both Star Fleet personnel and colonists. Data will be collected, and the colonists are supposed to try and acclimate to see if the planet feels right. Team 3, led by Commander James Ferris, is accompanied by a platoon of raw Marines conducting training on the planets surface.

It’s been six weeks. The planet Team 3 is surveying, P3-4797, looks very promising. Soil seems suitable to the colonies needs. Plenty of surface water and abundant plant life. The planet might prove to be the perfect place for the Sheridan Colony to rebuild.

Or so it seems….

Stranded on an alien world, it’s civilization crumbling after being hit with a devastating plague, the expedition must survive, find a way home, and try to help save the last survivors of this world. Where do they draw the line though, the Prime Directive is no help now. What will they do to survive, and how far will they go to help the people around them?

Through Star Fleet engineering, hard work, and luck, the Expedition manages to make it back to Federation Space. Transported to the USS Riemann they are reunited with loved ones and safe.

I’m having a good time with some of the NPCs. Some I ‘know’ better than others. Some are still really forming. They might be important for a few episodes and then fade back into the background. I also still intend to have some of the players pull NPC duty from time to time.

So far so good. You guys seem to be getting into your characters. I need to try very very hard not to say what you do. Even as a suggestion. I need to let you guys express your actions.

I’m happy with where my head is taking the story, but it’s not my story so I’ll see if you guys go there. I foresaw the trip to resupply the space station, but wasn’t sure when the opportunity might come up. I’m glad it came up and in a way it cleared up a possible story hiccup about an NPC and a side quest.

Two session in now and we’re doing pretty good. Characters are firming up I think. I’m trying not to juggle too many NPCs into any given conversation so I don’t have to spend too much time arguing with myself.

There is probably going to be some character conflict in this game. Which is good for stories. We’re mostly grown up so we should be able to handle that. If there is a character or NPC you think you should have a relationship with let me know during play. I will need to work out some rules regarding relationships with NPCs but they will probably be fairly easy to establish.

I know we went all last session without any dice rolling to speak of, I’m trying to keep the dice at bay as much as possible. This is a character driver and story driven game and I want to make sure that we aren’t getting derailed by the dice too often.

As I mentioned at the table, if anyone thinks I’m rushing anything, pr glazing over something you think is important story wise and want to explore please speak up. We are in no rush.

I signed up for ascendant membership today, which essentially means the games I am a GM for gain some additional benefits. One of those is the player secrets benefit in the characters section. I’m not sure how much I’ll end up using it, but I’ve added a few and think there will be a few more.

It also allows for a forum, so for those of you inclined to do play-by-post sort of stuff a forum is there to do that with. I have not played with it yet, but it can be a way to do some IC conversations that happen out of the flow of normal gaming. It can also be a place to post Flashback Fiction for your characters if you are so inclined.

I think there was some goos RP the first run. We got the stage set for the characters to enter the heart of the adventure. We’ve estalished some solid character foundations for some of the merry band and I hope to continue to build on that.

We might play around some with the campaign. As I mentioned we’ll be having all of you set up as one of the Marines at some point. I might also have you set up as some of the aliens so that we can play during the end days of the catastrophe from their view points.

We have a good start, and next week we’ll get into the fun part, setting the scene for the rest of the story.

If you have a comment about the game. Soomething you’d like to see in a session, or something about how the story goes, post it. This is an experiment in player driven campaign play, and you should all feel that you have a hand in the story, not just the playing of your characters, but also the direction of some of the external elements.